The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for processing an image.
In recent years, printing apparatuses have been spreading that can easily print images captured by a digital camera or the like. Recently, with the spread of digital cameras, printing apparatuses including a slot into which a memory card can be inserted or alternatively high resolution printing apparatuses including an interface for connection to a digital camera are commercially available. In such printing apparatuses, their print engines are of an ink jet type or sublimation type, and achieve high resolution printing.
Meanwhile, in the images captured by a digital camera, for example, the exposure value can be inappropriate or alternatively color fogging occurs owing to the camera's own characteristics or the like. Thus, techniques for correcting these are disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No 2000-165647A.
Meanwhile, the correction described above is preferred to be performed in accordance with the kind of a captured object (e.g., scenery and person). Nevertheless, the technique disclosed in the above publication has a problem that correction in accordance with the captured object cannot be performed.
Further, in recent years, so-called stand-alone printers have been commercially available, to which no personal computer is connected and in which the printing apparatus itself is composed of an image data reader and an image processor, so that the printing apparatus can perform image printing independently. In such stand-alone printers, the processing speed of the central processing unit is slower than in personal computers. This causes a problem that a long time is necessary before the start of printing when complicated correction processing is performed in accordance with the captured object.